Team Stats

Passing Yards

Rushing Yards

Turnovers

Time of Poss.

DANBURY, CT (Sep. 29) — Western Connecticut sophomore wide receiver Marquies Highsmith (West Haven, CT) caught eight passes for 110 yards and caught touchdown pass from nine and 13 yards out, but the Colonials dropped a 55-27 decision to visiting The College of New Jersey at The WAC on Saturday afternoon.

After a one-yard run from Western's Octavius McKoy (Stratford, CT) knotted the game at 7-7 with 4:49 remaining in the first quarter, the Lions scored 28 unanswered points and the outcome was never threatened the rest of the way.

A running attack that rushed for 261 yards was headed by senior Justin Doniloski (Rockaway, NJ) who had 24 carries for 127 yards and a pair of scores, from five and two yards, the later to give TCNJ a 35-7 advantage with 2:38 still left before halftime. He also had seven catches for 46 yards and an eight-yard TD from Daniel Dugan (Clark, NJ) to break the deadlock nearing the end of the first stanza.

Dugan completed 26 of 35 passes for 263 yards and piloted the offense which amassed 576 yards on the afternoon. Along with Doniloski, Glenn Grainer (Island Heights, NJ) pulled down a team-high seven catches for 107 yards.

The closest the Colonials would get in the second half, 20 points, followed a 12-play 76-yard drive the culminated by a the 13-yard pass completion by Will Arndt (Newtown, CT) to Highsmith with 7:09 remaining in the third quarter.

Arndt completed 22 of 41 passes for 236 yards while his back up Ryan Falaguerra (Milford, CT) was a perfect 3-of-3 for 55 yards and a 55-yard TD toss to Stephen DeJournett (Akron, OH) in the closing seconds of the third period. Falaguerra, Western's punter, came on when Arndt missed a series following hard hit by the Lions' defense.

Falaguerra, just a sophomore, averaged 41.5 yards on six points on Saturday, with a long of 56 yards.

McKoy carried the ball 18 times for 78 yards to lead Western's rushing corps.

Defensively, Nick Bricker (Middletown, NJ) led the Lions with nine tackles while Jeff Adubato (Butler, NJ) and Greg Burns (Hamilton, NJ) each recorded seven tackles for the winners, now 2-2 overall and 1-1 in the New Jersey Athletic Conference.

Western, now 0-4 overall and 0-3 in the league, was led by the tandem of Mike Lacaria (Watertown, CT) and Devin Myers (Waterbury, CT) who registered 13 and 11 tackles, respectively.

Western travels to Kean University next Saturday for a 1 pm meeting with the Cougars. TCNJ plays host to Cortland State at noon on October 6.